Leaked letter attacks treatment of Carter

Chris Carter. Photo / Dean Purcell

Te Atatu's Labour electorate committee has written to the party's president and leader to express its disgust at the party's treatment of former Labour member Chris Carter.

The leaked letter, published on right-leaning blogsite Kiwiblog, accused president Andrew Little and leader Phil Goff of "petty vengeance" and said they failed to follow the principles of natural justice in expelling Mr Carter from the Labour Party.

Their actions were offensive and had destroyed the trust and faith of the committee in the party leadership, the letter said.

It also threw its weight behind Mr Carter's belief that Mr Goff is an uninspiring leader.

Mr Carter was expelled from the party in October after calling for a new leader and secretly sending letters to journalists to undermine Mr Goff's leadership.

The letter, written with unanimous approval of the committee, also accused the party leadership of being rude in not answering previous letters expressing similar sentiments, but Mr Little said he had not received letters before this one.

He said the committee was entitled to its opinion, but the New Zealand Council of the Labour Party had more information than the committee, as well as a different perspective - the wider interests of the party.

He also questioned the timing of the letter's leaking, which took place a few hours before Mr Goff was due to give his last major speech of the year.

"It was calculated to cause damage," Mr Little said, though he did not speculate on who leaked the letter.

In his speech Mr Goff said middle income earners - not just those on low incomes - were being squeezed and he promised that Labour would not raise taxes on these people, but rather focus on raising wages and lowering the cost of living.

He has already signalled several policy areas Labour will focus on, including greater intervention in monetary policy and bringing back a tax bracket for the highest income earners.

Mr Little also questioned how united the committee was in its scathing criticism, a point that was also raised by former president Mike Williams, who lives in the electorate and is still a member of the party.

"I'm glad to see the back of the bastard, frankly," Mr Williams said.

"I know some of the members [of the committee] and I can tell you that that would not have been a unanimous decision. There must have been quite a lot of people out of the room at the time."

Mr Carter said he did not have anything to do with the letter, or the leak.

He said the fact it took so long for other people to put their name forward for the Te Atatu nomination showed the level of local support he enjoyed.

"I have widespread support over the incredibly unprofessional way this whole thing was dealt with," Mr Carter said.

Mr Little said he would respond to the letter in due course.

"We do want to have the best possible relationship with the committee."

Labour will decide its next Te Atatu candidate on December 18.